


fire was not made to be held in human skin

by plantyourtreeswithme



Series: Terrifying Tolkien Week Fics [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Smaug & Glaurung Apprenticeship, Young Smaug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-26 19:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5016784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plantyourtreeswithme/pseuds/plantyourtreeswithme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That's why it was given to the dragons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fire was not made to be held in human skin

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is for [Terrifying Tolkien Week](http://acefandomite.tumblr.com/post/131188082867/pucabilbo-the-much-anticipated-sequel-to)!
> 
> Inspired by [this beautiful, beautiful gifset](http://dungeonsdeepcavernsold.tumblr.com/post/130878632419/scottlanq-fire-was-not-made-to-be-held-in-human), which is based off of the poem _Only The Sun Would Be Brighter_ by Keith J. Castillo.
> 
> I've used an html feature that translates Wyrmspeech if you scroll your mouse over it. It's really cool and available [here](http://plantyourtreeswithme.tumblr.com/post/125435570772/hi-first-of-all-i-want-to-say-that-your-writing) if you want to use it. Translations are also available at the end of each chapter if you're on mobile.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> > _i._
>> 
>> _he burns like holiness, like glory,_   
>  _like the fire of a sun not yet seen_   
>  _and you can't help but stare._
>> 
>> _he is fire_   
>  _and ash_   
>  _and burning._

His father was a Long-worm from the Gray Mountains and his mother a fire-drake, so he only ever knew one of them.

Maulanth the Devourer was red, like her son, and known to all as the terror of Beleriand. She was one of Morgoth's favorites - a dragon that killed without question. She was cold, calculating, and ruthless, never retreating until her job was done, or until Morgoth's forces pulled back with either a cry of retreat or of victory.

Smaug, however, was a little bit different.

He'd been hatched on the Withered Heath, which was normal enough for dragons (his mother enjoyed telling him the story of how she'd pleaded with Morgoth for several years to fly to the Heath and lay her egg, telling him multiple times that she only had a few years left to lay it). But his first puff had come much too soon, and the fire had been almost completely out of his control.

Morgoth had ordered Maulanth back after a few years of tending to her hatchling, and as soon as Smaug's wings had developed fully, they had flown together to Angband. The Master had wanted to put her son to work immediately, fighting at his mother's side at the front of the War of Wrath. Maulanth had protested, claiming that Smaug was still a hatchling and not old enough to be sent off to the war.

That angered Morgoth.

_"-- -- --------,"_ she hissed in Wyrmspeech to him one day.  _"----- --- -- ------- --- ---- -------- -------- -- ---- -----. ---- --- ----- --- --- -- ---- - ------------ -- ----- ------- -- ---. --- ----- ---, -- --- ------- -- --- ------- -- --- ----. --- -- ---- ---- --- -- --- ---- --------- --- -- --- -- --- ------. --- ---- --- ---- -- --, --- ---- ---- --- ------ --- ----- --- --- ------ ---- ---."_

He was confused, but he promised her that he would do as she asked.

In those days, Glaurung had left Angband for a time to dwell by the Withered Heath (his spirit was older than his body, Maulanth told her son, and he was weary from the many battles his scales had seen). Smaug snuck out of the fortress one night, his wings completely silent as he glided over the tops of trees.

He arrived in the morning, the smell hitting him like a smack to the face over a league away. It was reminiscent of rotting flesh, but the stench was ten times as powerful. Smaug would have given anything to plug up his nostrils and turn around immediately.

He prevailed.

Glaurung was atop the crest of a hill, and the young dragon nearly went blind when he laid eyes on him. The elder dragon's scales were of such a scintillating shade of gold that he not only closed his haws, but his outer eyelids, as well. He hovered in the air, blinking and wishing that the sun did not exist.

"DO NOT TAUNT ME WITH YOUR WINGS, WYRM," came a rumbling, thunderous voice from below him.

Something deep within Smaug's gut sent him crashing to the earth almost immediately - perhaps it was Glaurung's prowess at dragon-spells that made him so obedient - and he would have rammed into the ground and cracked every bone in his body if he had not somehow regained control at the last second. His wings spread out with a horrific  _SNAP_ , jerking his shoulders almost out of their sockets. _  
_

His claws met the ground, and he felt completely dwarfed compared to the size of the wingless drake that was resting before him.

"I would not dare to taunt one as great as you,  _\------_ Glaurung," he said meekly, wondering why Glaurung was speaking in Westron rather than Wyrmtongue.

Glaurung's eyes had been closed up until that point, but now he opened them to examine Smaug. The dragon's gaze gave him the unshakable feeling that Smaug was being watched, but he did not waver.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?"

"My mother, Maulanth, sent me to be apprentice to you," Smaug replied, his amber eyes locked on Glaurung's green ones.

"AND DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF WORTHY OF LEARNING THE OLD WAYS?" Glaurung asked, a hint of interest in his tone.

"I would not have come if my mother did not deem me so."

"AHHH..." Glaurung sighed, edging forward on his thick, powerful legs. "SO SHE WARNED YOU TO AVOID DIRECT ANSWERS, THEN. GOOD, GOOD. RIDDLES ARE THE ONLY APPROPRIATE WAY TO HOLD CONVERSE WITH A DRAGON.

"SHOW ME WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF, FLEDGLING," he commanded, pushing himself up so as to get a better view of the valley that lay below them. "AFTER ALL, YOU HAVE ONLY LIVED FOR A COUPLE OF DECADES, IF THE THICKNESS OF YOUR HIDE IS ANYTHING TO GO BY."

"Yes,  _\------_."

Smaug positioned himself in one of the stances his mother had taught him, the one she had said was "best for spitting," which was what they called breathing. He breathed in and out, his intake of air slow and methodical.

He opened his mouth, inhaled, and exuded as much fire from his mouth as he could.

Spitting fire was a strange sensation, but he had been familiar with it since birth. It was sort of like building up a sneeze; there was a tickling feeling in his snout, and then it moved to the back of his throat and forced itself out of his mouth in the form of flame.

He sent flame undulating across the valley in wide waves, but it quickly sputtered out. Maulanth shouldn't have sent him, he wasn't strong enough, couldn't manipulate steady, continuous fire...

"SO MUCH POTENTIAL," Glaurung chided, "THAT NEEDS TO BE UNLOCKED. HERE, LET ME SHOW YOU, HATCHLING -"

He opened his maw and set the world ablaze, and everything was lit with flame, the entire world was burning, embers spreading the inferno and landing like hot coals at his feet...

Smaug couldn't look away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Quenya Translations (in order of appearance)**  
>  _urulóki_ \- fire-serpents, dragons, fire-drakes
> 
> **Wyrmspeech Translations (in order of appearance)**  
>  _\-- -- --------._ \- Go to Glaurung.  
>  _\----- --- -- ------- --- ---- -------- -------- -- ---- -----. ---- --- ----- --- --- -- ---- - ------------ -- ----- ------- -- ---. --- ----- ---, -- --- ------- -- --- ------- -- --- ----. --- -- ---- ---- --- -- --- ---- --------- --- -- --- -- --- ------. --- ---- --- ---- -- --, --- ---- ---- --- ------ --- ----- --- --- ------ ---- ---._ \- Learn how to control the fire burning eternal in your chest. Have him teach you how to cast a dragon-spell on those nearest to you. And above all, do not succumb to the calling of the gold. For it will burn you in the most beautiful way if you do not resist. And once you fall to it, not even your own spells can break the one placed over you.  
>  _\------_ \- master


End file.
